Elizabeth the Queen Quotes

“Thatcher once said that if she were a visitor from Mars required to create a constitutional system, "I would set up ... a hereditary monarchy, wonderfully trained, in duty and in leadership which understands example, which is always there, which is above politics, for which the whole nation has an affection and which is a symbol of patriotism.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“Like the princess, Philip didn't believe in public displays of affection, which made it easy to mask his feelings. But he revealed them privately in a touching letter to Queen Elizabeth in which he wondered if he deserved "all the good things which have happened to me," especially "to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“Charles is difficult to pigeonhole politically. Tony Blair wrote that he considered him a “curious mixture of the traditional and the radical (at one level he was quite New Labour, at another definitely not) and of the princely and insecure.” He is certainly conservative in his old-fashioned dress and manners, his advocacy of traditional education in the arts and humanities, his reverence for classical architecture and the seventeenth-century Book of Common Prayer. But his forays into mysticism and his jeremiads against scientific progress, industrial development, and globalization give him an eccentric air. “One of the main purposes of the monarchy is to unite the country and not divide it,” said Kenneth Rose. When the Queen took the throne at age twenty-five, she was a blank slate, which gave her a great advantage in maintaining the neutrality necessary to preserve that unity. It was a gentler time, and she could develop her leadership style quietly. But it has also taken vigilance and discipline for her to keep her views private over so many decades. Charles has the disadvantage of a substantial public record of strong and sometimes contentious opinions, not to mention the private correspondence with government ministers protected by exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act that could come back to haunt him if any of it is made public. One letter that did leak was written in 1997 to a group of friends after a visit to Hong Kong and described the country’s leaders as “appalling old waxworks.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“Philip revealed his carefully cloaked emotions when he wrote to his mother-in-law, "Cherish Lilibet? I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me." He declared that his new wife was "the only 'thing' in this world which is absolutely real to me, and my ambition is to weld the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will also have a positive existence for the good”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“Your Majesty, I'm afraid everything that could possibly go wrong is going wrong," said Major Sir Michael Parker, an impresario for royal events with an expertise in pyrotechnics. "Oh good, what fun!" she replied with a smile.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“There has been much speculation, not least because of historical parallels, about when precisely Elizabeth became Queen. It undoubtedly happened when she was atop the African fig tree, which draws a romantic line to the moment in 1558 when Elizabeth I, seated next to an oak tree at Hatfield House, heard that the death of her sister, Queen Mary, meant she was the monarch, also at age twenty-five.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“The princess “would not have been a difficult person to love,” said Patricia Mountbatten. “She was beautiful, amusing and gay.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“Time is not my dictator,” said the Queen Mother. “I dictate to time. I want to meet people.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“Time is not my dictator,” said the Queen Mother. “I dictate to time.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“But attention focused on their inane sexual banter, especially Charles’s juvenile wish to be reincarnated as a tampon so he could “live inside your trousers.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“Засади високого виховання, яких дотримувалася Єлизавета, ґрунтувалися на заохоченні й розумінні: не висміювати, не вихвалятися, не підвищувати голос і "в жодному разі не кричати й не залякувати", адже "втратиш цінну довіру інших". Як писала мати в одному з листів до Лілібет, "не забувай тримати себе в руках, не порушуй обіцянок, і нехай тобою керує любов".”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“There has been much speculation, not least because of historical parallels, about when precisely Elizabeth became Queen. It undoubtedly happened when she was atop the African fig tree, which draws a romantic line to the moment in 1558 when Elizabeth I, seated next to an oak tree at Hatfield House, heard that the death of her sister, Queen Mary, meant she was the monarch, also at age twenty-five.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“In England the upper class always have had separate bedrooms," explained their cousin Lady Pamela Mountbatten (later Hicks). "You don't want to be bothered with snoring, or someone flinging a leg around. Then when you are feeling cozy you share your room sometimes. It is lovely to be able to choose.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“She hit a new low in mid-July when she took up with Dodi Fayed, the son of Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Fayed, who had been repeatedly denied British citizenship by the U.K. government. Mohamed Fayed had befriended Diana as a generous benefactor of several of her charities. He appealed to her, according to Andrew Neil, a sometime consultant for Fayed, “by cultivating the idea that both were outsiders and had the same enemies.” Diana met Dodi while she and her sons were staying at the ten-acre Fayed estate in Saint-Tropez. At age forty-two, Dodi was a classic case of arrested development: spoiled, ill-educated, unemployed, rootless, and irresponsible, with a taste for cocaine and fast cars. He showered Diana with extravagant gifts, including an $11,000 gold Cartier Panther watch, and sybaritic trips on his father’s plane and yachts. From the moment the story of their romance broke on August 7, the tabloids covered the couple’s every move with suggestive photographs and lurid prose. William and Harry, who were at Balmoral with their father, mistrusted Dodi, and they were embarrassed by their mother’s exhibitionistic behavior.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“As the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the monarch is the defender of the faith—the official religion of the country, established by law and respected by sentiment. Yet when the Queen travels to Scotland, she becomes a member of the Church of Scotland, which governs itself and tolerates no supervision by the state. She doesn’t abandon the Anglican faith when she crosses the border, but rather doubles up, although no Anglican bishop ever comes to preach at Balmoral. Elizabeth II has always embraced what former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey called the “sacramental manner in which she views her own office.” She regards her faith as a duty, “not in the sense of a burden, but of glad service” to her subjects. Her faith is also part of the rhythm of her daily life. “She has a comfortable relationship with God,” said Carey. “She’s got a capacity because of her faith to take anything the world throws at her. Her faith comes from a theology of life that everything is ordered.” She worships unfailingly each Sunday, whether in a tiny chapel in the Laurentian mountains of Quebec or a wooden hut on Essequibo in Guyana after a two-hour boat ride. But “she doesn’t parade her faith,” said Canon John Andrew, who saw her frequently during the 1960s when he worked for Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey. On holidays she attends services at the parish church in Sandringham, and at Crathie outside the Balmoral gates. Her habit is to take Communion three or four times a year—at Christmas, Easter, Whitsunday, and the occasional special service—“an old-fashioned way of being an Anglican, something she was brought up to do,” said John Andrew. She enjoys plain, traditional hymns and short, straightforward sermons. George Carey regards her as “middle of the road. She treasures Anglicanism. She loves the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which is always used at Sandringham. She would disapprove of modern services, but wouldn’t make that view known. The Bible she prefers is the old King James version. She has a great love of the English language and enjoys the beauty of words. The scriptures are soaked into her.” The Queen has called the King James Bible “a masterpiece of English prose.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“I cannot let Christmas pass without speaking to you directly of these difficulties because they are of deep concern to all of us as individuals and as a nation. Different people have different views, deeply and sincerely felt, about our problems and how they should be solved. Let us remember, however, that what we have in common is more important than what divides us.” The”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“The idea that you don’t do anything on the off-chance you might be criticized, you’d end up living like a cabbage and it’s pointless. You’ve got to stick up for something you believe in.” While”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“Rather, “the trouble is caused by unthinking people who carelessly throw away ageless ideals as if they were old and outworn machinery.” To uphold endangered “fundamental principles,” she called for a “special kind of courage … which makes us stand up for everything we know is right, everything that is true and honest. We need the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics so that we can show the world that we are not afraid of the future.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“There are long periods when life seems a small dull round, a petty business with no point, and then suddenly we are caught up in some great event which gives us a glimpse of the solid and durable foundations of our existence.” The”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“The Girl Guides kept up their activities as well, giving Elizabeth an unexpectedly democratic experience when refugees from London’s bomb-ravaged East End were taken in by families on the Windsor estate and joined the troop. The girls earned their cooking badges, with instruction from a castle housekeeper, by baking cakes and scones (a talent Elizabeth would later display for a U.S. president) and making stew and soup. With their Cockney accents and rough ways, the refugees gave the future Queen no deference, calling her Lilibet, the nickname even daughters of aristocrats were forbidden to use, and compelling her to wash dishes in an oily tub of water”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“if you find something or somebody a bore, the fault lies in you.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“their time was devoted to sightseeing (which she filmed on her movie camera), they also”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, a twice-divorced American.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“When is the wedding?” asked the Queen. “The Fourth of July,” I replied. Yet again I saw those twinkling eyes. “Oh,” she said, “that’s a little dangerous!” “I hope all is forgiven,”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

“The Queen drilled in her own mother's maxim that "if you find something or somebody a bore, the fault lies in you.”
― Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch